Politicized Business Ties: Business Groups in Post-Socialism
From Santa Fe Institute Events Wiki
| Global IP Fellows Meeting |
Balazs Vedres
Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary
Politicized Business Ties: Business Groups in Post-Socialism
This project analyzes the interactions of firms and parties across an entire epoch of economic and political transformation from 1987 to 2006 in a case where market-oriented enterprises and competitive political parties emerged in tandem. Our case involves the simultaneous transformation of political and economic fields, the separation of state from economy and a possible re-politicization of the economic field. In examining newly market oriented firms and newly competitive political parties, a key question arises: What is the relationship between business networks and political ties? By collecting data on political business groups from the first moment of network formation we can test rival hypotheses from political sociology and political science about the causal relations and timing of business ties and political affiliations.